Event Details: The African Diaspora International Film Festival

The Office of the Vice President for Diversity and Community Affairs and The African Diaspora International Film Festival invite you to the

AFRO-LATINO FILM SERIES

WHEN:FRIDAY, MAY 30 to SUNDAY, JUNE 1

WHERE: Room 263 Macy

TICKETS: FREE with a validTCID​

​

Friday, May 30, 2014

6:30pmHOW TO CONQUER AMERICA – FREE SCREENINGNewly arrived in Montréal, and determined to conquer North America by charming blond-haired women, Gégé, a Haitian in his thirties, lands up at Fanfan’s – his nostalgic uncle who has given up poetry for a good old taxicab and dreams of returning to his homeland. (Canada, 2004, 96mins, Dany Laferriere, dir)

“A shrewd, funny, humane and very well-written and acted comedy from Haitian-born Montreal writer Dany Laferriere (author of “How To Make Love To a Negro Without Getting Tired” and “On the Verge of a Fever”), who makes a lively directorial debut with this comic-dramatic tale.”~Michael Wilmington – Chicago Tribune

Saturday, May 31, 2014

2pmDESAMORESReminiscent of a Walter Mosley character, Isabelo Andújar is an Afro-Puerto Rican detective hired to solve the double murder of an affluent thirty something couple with a flourishing insurance business in the beautiful city of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Isabelo is laid-back, has a faintly amused distaste for the rich, and knows how to deal with the colorful cons with names like “Big” or “Little Death” who populate the island. As he investigates the murders, he is thrown into a world of abundance, jalousie and innuendoes that will lead him to intriguing discoveries. “Based on the novel “Desamores” by political writer Wilfredo Mattos-Cintron, [the film] brings some nice ironic class [and racial] tensions back into the genre.” – Variety (Puerto Rico, 2004, 107min, Edmundo H. Rodríguez, dir.)

4pmDENYING BRAZILA documentary film about the taboos, stereotypes, and struggles of Black actors in Brazilian television “soaps.” Based on his own memories and on a sturdy body of research evidence, the director analyzes race relations in Brazilian soap operas, calling attention to their likely influence on Black people’s identity-forming processes. (Brazil, 2000, 92min, Joel Zito Araujo, dir.)

“As a sociological dissection on how popular entertainment can shape racial prejudice and help to build racial justice, ‘Denying Brazil’ is a strong and significant work of intelligence.” – Phil Hall, Filmthreat

6pmTHEY ARE WE- NY PREMIERE!Can a family separated by the transatlantic slave trade for 170 years sing and dance its way back together? THEY ARE WE tells the story of survival against the odds and how determination and shared humanity can triumph over the bleakest of histories.

“How mind-blowing and fascinating is this upcoming documentary? Talk about bridging the gap!They Are Weis a film which documents how a family of Afro-Cubans in a remote village of Perico, Cuba learn of and become acquainted with their ancestors in Sierra Leone, West Africa, and vice-versa. “ – Vanessa Martinez – Shadow and Act

Sunday, June 1, 2014

1pmLA PLAYA D.C.Tomas, an Afro-Colombian teenager who fled the country’s Pacific coast pushed out by the war, faces difficulties of growing up in a city of exclusion and racism. When Jairo, his younger brother and closer friend disappear, Tomas is forced to leave his home to look for him.(Colombia, 2012, 90 min, Juan Andres Arango, dir.)Official Selection, Cannes Film Festival 2012. Colombia’s 2014 Oscar entry.Shown withWHITE LIKE THE MOONA Mexican-American girl struggles to keep her identity when her mother forces her to bleach her skin. White Like the Moon is a revealing film about a dilemma not very well known outside Latino communities; that of the myth of the light skin superiority in Indigenous and Indigenous descendant communities. (USA, 2001, 23, Marina Gonzalez Palmier, dir.)

3:30pmTANGO NEGRO: THE AFRICAN ROOTS OF TANGODirector Dom Pedro reveals the depth of the footprints of African music on the tango through musical performances and interviews from tango fans and historians. (France, 2013, 93min, Dom Pedro, dir.)Shown withCANDOMBEFernado Nunez, a black man, a musician, and a maker of drums, sees himself as the heir to “Candombe”, an important social and cultural legacy from his slave forefathers. (Uruguay, 1993, 16min, Rafael Deugenio, dir.)

6pmMALUALAMaluala takes us into a palenque, a settlement of escaped slaves hidden somewhere in Cuba’s eastern mountains, where discord is sown between black “kings” by clever subversives working for the Spanish government. (Cuba, 1979, 95min, Segio Giral, dir.)

“The historically lucid intrigues of Maluala (1979), where the Afrocentric leadership of fugitive palenque communities is pitted against each other COINTELPRO-style by Spanish colonists, is one of those Cuban films that were forged in a righteous, red-hot ferment but still found the courage and wit to ask questions about the society around them.” ~Gary Dauphin, The Village Voice

​

Refreshments will be served

DVDs of films from Africa and the African Diaspora will be on sale atthe venue. $15 per DVD; $25 for 2 DVD; $30 for three DVD and $10 foreach additional DVD.